Description of the Prior Art
Header bags are a well known type of bags. They are ordinarily rectangular in shape, usually having a narrower width than length. The bags are closed at their sides usually having been fabricated from plastic tubing, and may either have plain edges or may be gusseted along their sides, i.e. the actual flattened edge is pushed inward for some distance between the two side panels of the bags to present two new edges between which is the original edge, and all three edges are then pressed together to result in gussets disposed between the original edge and the two new edges.
The header bags may be sealed together at the upper ends as well as at their bottom ends, but each bag will have a rupturable perforation line which is spaced from, and extends parallel to, the top edge of the bag. The strip between the rupturable perforation line and the top edge of the bag pack is known as the "header". Packs of these header bags are formed by disposing as many as a hundred bags, one on top of the other in a coinciding relationship, with the header of each bag being adhered to the header of adjacent bags. The bags are mounted in some way to hold the headers in a fixed position leaving the remainder of each bag free of any restraint other than that provided by its perforated connection to the header. Among the ways of mounting the headers is providing registering orifices on the headers and at least one peg or hook on a rack or other fixed planar surface on which the rack, if provided, itself may be secured.
Heretofore, removal of such header bags from thus mounted packs has been accomplished by a cashier or packer grasping with one hand the edge of a bag below the perforation line and pulling the lower part of the bag free from the header by, in effect, tearing the bag along the perforation line. It is then necessary to grasp the bag with the user's other hand to open it by pulling apart the upper edges of the bag panels. When this separation has been accomplished, the cashier or packer may then deposit the customer's purchases in the thus opened bag.
While the dispensing process for header bags is theoretically simple and efficient, there are certain problems which have arisen which cause a waste of personnel time and sometimes the use of larger than necessary bags for particular purchases. Among such problems are the fact that there may be difficulty in grasping the edge of just one bag of the pack at a time, particularly where the bags are slippery. Not infrequently, the cashier or other packer may end up pulling two or more bags from the headers, one or more of which may be discarded, or may inadvertently fall upon the floor.
In addition, after a bag has been pulled from its header by the cashier's grasping an edge, it is ordinarily necessary for the cashier then to use his or her other hand to pull apart the bag panels so that merchandise may be deposited in the bag cavity--particularly since bag panels often tend to stick together, making the process of opening the bags more difficult.
Similar problems occur where header bags are laid down inside dispenser cartons or on shelves. In addition, in certain types of weather, static build-up may occur which can make it most difficult for a cashier to remove one bag at a time.
In addition, these problems particularly occur where small sized bags are provided, with the result that cashiers or other packers find it easier to reach and pull out bags which are larger than necessary for a particular customer's purchases. Such over-bagging, particularly when repeated thousands of times, results in costly waste.
In effect, to overcome such problems with the header bags just described, certain other expedients have been utilized, one of which is what is termed "front open" header bags. With front open header bags, the front panel of each bag does not extend over the perforation line through the rear panel so that the bags are open on the header pack. A clerk may thus extract a bag from a mounted pack by simply placing his or her hand at the top edge of the front panel and pulling it away from the back panel, both to open the bag end, with further pulling, remove it from the header above the perforation line of the back panel of the bag. This open header bag arrangement, however, has been found to be unsatisfactory for, and consequently, is seldom employed, for thin bags, e.g. those having wall thicknesses less than 0.0006 inch. Since bag wall thicknesses are often desired to be even less than half 0.0006", in order to reduce their cost, the open header bag system cannot be employed. Also, open headers cannot be employed with gusseted bags, and the production process by which they are made is relatively slow, thereby increasing their costs.
What has been needed is a system and method for encouraging the use of correct bag sizes for all purchases and for improving the efficiency of cashiers and other packagers, and accomplishing such objectives at a minimum cost and with bags which can be of any suitable wall thickness, and with the option of having gussets to facilitate packing various products' configurations.